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They say a lot can happen in the space of a year. And boy, has that never been truer than the events of the last 12 months! In 2023 alone, Sonic the Hedgehog fans have been able to enjoy no less than three major brand new games, four meaty DLC expansion packs for two other games, at least five IDW specials (alongside the monthly comics), a number of animated projects and several hundred thousand* merchandise collaborations (including a significant one with LEGO). And that’s just the stuff SEGA was directly involved in! It truly has been an incredibly busy year for Sonic, with enough new material out there to satisfy almost every kind of blue blur fanatic - Modern, Classic, Shadow, Comic, Cartoon, Art-heads, Merch hunters and even the Sonic Retros. The sheer volume of Sonic content that has flowed in 2023 has been non-stop - almost aggressively relentless, in fact. It’s been tough for the Sonic News team to stay on top of it all, truth be told! But we’re finally here, at the end of this magnificent journey we call ‘2023’, ready to attempt to roundup the biggest stories of the year and contextualise it all for you. We thought 2022 was busy, but boy we were not prepared for just how jam-packed this year has been. This truly has been Sonic the Hedgehog’s busiest year yet. * Might be an exaggeration. The Big Story It’s difficult to condense a year’s worth of news into one contextualised narrative when the news was ‘EVERYTHING HAPPENED’, but if 2022 was all about ‘convergence’ and unification of the Sonic franchise across all mediums, then 2023 clearly illustrated the fruits of those efforts - from both the game development side and the brand marketing side. The sales success of Sonic Frontiers led the way on this, with news about the game’s continuing performance becoming a regular occurrence during SEGA Sammy’s quarterly fiscal briefings. As of November, the open-zone adventure has racked up over 3.2 million copies, making it one of the best-performing Sonic the Hedgehog titles ever. Alongside this, the entire franchise has moved 1.6 billion units as of March 2023. SEGA Sammy believes that these very impressive numbers have been achieved, in part, thanks to its successful partnership with third parties to amplify the Sonic brand in other mediums. Most obviously, the Paramount Sonic movies no doubt helped revitalise the franchise in many people’s minds, but the company also points to its collaborations with Netflix, Minecraft, Capcom and others to push what it called a “successful transmedia strategy” - an effort that began in 2020. Thanks to Sonic’s silver screen stardom - and the resulting successes that followed - SEGA Sammy believes that its flagship IP is now on a high, with its future looking incredibly bright. Sonic brand director and Sonic Team lead Takashi Iizuka was promptly promoted to an executive-level position within the company, and there is an eagerness to replicate the same turnaround performance for SEGA’s other dormant brands. The publisher ended the year by announcing that it would be reviving five more of its classic IPs, including Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe and Crazy Taxi - some of which are rumoured to also get movie adaptations, just like Sonic. SEGA has proudly claimed that Sonic’s renewed fame was the catalyst for many of these retro revivals. Sonic the Hedgehog helped put SEGA on the map in the 1990s, and it’s kind of poetic that he seems to be doing it all over again in the 2020s, some 30 years later. With the ‘New Era’ and the imminent arrival of its ‘Super Game’ in 2025, the next year could see SEGA truly transform its fortunes, if it’s able to fully replicate its success with Sonic. So... Many... Releases! To say that 2023 was a good year for Sonic games would be the understatement of the decade. SEGA and its content partners were firing on all cylinders this year, with an incredibly generous amount of products to play, read and watch. First, the games. Sonic Team made good on its promise to deliver three substantial content updates to 2022’s Sonic Frontiers, starting off with a set of new audio and visual modes, leading into a Birthday Bash package containing new challenges. The final expansion added an entirely brand new alternative story experience for the final Starfall Island, and while it was incredibly hit-and-miss it was nonetheless an impressively involved effort for a free DLC. With Frontiers releasing just last year and Sonic Team’s focus on expansion content in 2023, we would have understood if things ended up being quiet for the rest of the year. Instead, we got several nice surprises. Takashi Iizuka and original Sonic designer Naoto Ohshima teamed up to bring us a new Classic Sonic adventure in Sonic Superstars (see our review here). SEGA HARDlight came out of its mobile gaming shell and launched a 3D platformer on Apple Arcade, Sonic Dream Team (our review on that here). Even the Sonic social team clubbed together and released a free game on April 1, in the form of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. And to top it all off, 2022’s Sonic Origins compilation also received a substantial upgrade with Sonic Origins Plus, adding new playable characters, challenges and the complete archive of 8-bit Game Gear Sonic the Hedgehog games. It continues to get updates to this day. Even in terms of games alone, 2023 has been an exceptionally packed year - but add in everything else that released and it’s clear that we’ve all been spoiled rotten. Netflix launched Season 2 of Sonic Prime (and millions of hours of the show were watched), IDW continued its run of Sonic comics alongside a number of specials (covering Winter, Summer, Halloween, Amy Rose’s anniversary and Sonic’s 900th adventure to name but a few), LEGO released a series of Sonic-themed toys, and there were many licensing partnerships between SEGA and Igloo, Hypland, Numskull and Crocs among others. The Sonic Community was responsible for a lot of action too - Noah Copeland added extra content to his ambitious Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit project, an episode of SatAM was lovingly re-animated, a trailer for a fan film featuring Shadow the Hedgehog was released and a Sonic mod project, Hellfire Saga, was finally completed after five years of development. However you enjoy and celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog, you can’t argue that there hasn’t been something for everyone this year. "It Belongs in a Museum!" The last 12 months haven’t just been good fun for fans excited about the new Sonic stuff, either. No, 2023 has been a tornado of interesting new developments in the retro Sonic scene as well. Archive artwork and assets have consistently dropped over the last year - everything from old Sonic CD storyboards, Sonic Mania concepts and McDonalds toy sketches, to early Tails art and sprites, high quality Sonic X-treme screenshots and packshots of cancelled PC ports. Former Sonic Team designer Satoshi Okano even got involved by sharing some concept artwork of characters and pieces he made for Sonic Jam and Sonic Adventure, with the latter solving an age-old niche mystery surrounding a previously unknown ‘Spider’ character. Speaking of Sonic Adventure, a pre-release version of the game was also uncovered, known as the ‘Tournament Disk’. Perhaps the biggest surprise this year in this area concerns a game that everybody thought was already tapped for prototype material - Sonic the Hedgehog 2. With the help of the Video Game History Foundation, new concept art and documents not only unearthed us more details about the scrapped ‘Cyber City Zone’ stage, but the VGHF was able to recreate (to a best estimate) a portion of the level itself! More contextual information regarding the game’s early ‘time travel’ concept was also revealed, it’s super fascinating and well worth the watch. British Sonic fans who grew up in the 1990s will also feel blessed about the return of another long lost figure in 2023. The original Sonic the Hedgehog statue from London’s old SEGAWorld was discovered and loving restored by none other than… SEGA themselves! The restored statue went on something of a grand tour in the second half of the year, including Gamescom (with spinning globe and everything!). Honestly, all the above doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the archive material that has been discovered this year - stuff like the Rocky arcade game, dumps of SEGASonic Cosmo Fighter, the return of the original 1990s Sonic hot air balloon in the UK and the discovery of Sonic and Tails in the original Fighting Vipers arcade game - but if I wrote about it all we’d be here ALL DAY! Events Madness 2023 was also a big year for Sonic-related events too. Top of the list here was clearly the launch of the highly anticipated World Tour of the much-loved Sonic Symphony, which began in London and Los Angeles to critical acclaim and is now charting a course to spread musical cheer across the globe. The concert’s frontman, Shota Nakama, has an incredible energy and creative talent which can be seen in every stage performance - the event is clearly made with a lot of love for the Sonic series and we highly recommend experiencing it! Beyond Symphony, SEGA also partnered with restauranteur Andy Nguyen and the Secret Sauce Society to launch a series of pop-up themed diners, called the Sonic Speed Cafe. We went to the premiere of the first location when it arrived in San Diego and loved the experience and the creativity of the menu, and there’s currently a second pop-up operating in California until February. In Japan, Sonic took residency at the country’s famous Fuji-Q theme park, with characters from the series taking over the venue’s announcement recordings and a ‘Sonic Square’ set up to promote various games and activities. Sonic also popped up at Tokyo Game Show and the Tokyo Toy Fair (for some reason), and SEGA kicked off a special pan-Asia ‘fan meeting’ tour across multiple countries where fans could get some face time with Jun Senoue and Kazuyuki Hoshino. Sonic fans have always clubbed together to celebrate their favourite franchise in many different ways, and in 2023 this was more apparent than ever. Alongside classic online events such as Sonic Amateur Games Expo and Sonic Hacking Contest, retro community fans were represented as the 2000s webmasters of Sonic Stuff Research Group came together at the Retro World Expo to host a panel about their experience at the start of the modern Sonic web. A range of interesting fan conventions were also held, such as Sonic the Comic Con, Sonic Fan Fest, Sonic Expo and Sonic Revolution. There was absolutely no way anybody could have been bored as a Sonic fan this year! Unionize! We’d like to end this roundup on a hopeful, humanitarian note. We’ve all enjoyed, chatted about and hyped over the huge volume of Sonic the Hedgehog content released in 2023, but it’s important to also recognise the people behind these projects, who work tirelessly to bring us all the games, comics, shows and more that we fans constantly demand, collect and play. If you look at the state of the broader video games industry in general, it is easy to see that 2023 was a sad and uncomfortable tale of two halves. On the one side, it was a very positive year in terms of game releases - but on the other hand, constant reports of mass layoffs and abusive treatment of employees at major publishers brought to the fore a depressing reality behind all the flashy trailers and shiny game boxes. Sonic projects sadly didn’t escape this trend, with Roblox developer Gamefam (best known in our community for its Sonic Speed Simulator project) settling in court with the National Labor Relations Board over complaints concerning pay discussion. The studio has also faced accusations relating to pay, development crunch and communication since late 2022. Luckily, SEGA has so far avoided being included in such depressing headlines, but that day may yet come. In refreshing news, a number of SEGA of America employees voted to have their rights protected by a new union (the “Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA”) partnering with the Communication Workers of America. However, while SEGA’s corporate response was initially positive, there are fears that the American office will still see layoffs in early 2024 - with reports claiming that the company is strong-arming unionised members and side-stepping the AEGIS organisation entirely. It would be a poor start to the new year if any of this comes to pass - much of SEGA’s success in recent years (including with Sonic) can be nailed down to the people working hard on these games, in every department. There’s still time for SEGA to reverse course on this decision and better respect the efforts of all in their company. While we hold out hope on that, we think that SoA’s employees’ movement to unionise is an inspiring message for all game industry employees working in the current landscape, and we hope employees at other publishers follow suit. What Were Your Highlights? So, that was the year that was! So much happened in 2023 that we couldn't possibly cover it all, but hopefully we've done a decent enough job of bring you the abridged version. Let us know in the comments what YOUR highlights of 2023 were! And from all of us at the Sonic Stadium to all of you, we wish you a very Happy New Year and a prosperous 2024! Cheers! View full story

When it came to revamping Sonic in 2D, Sonic 4: Episodes 1 and 2 didn’t exactly bring about a new, exciting era. In fact, it failed to thrill most fans. Sega tried again with Sonic Mania, this time bringing the franchise back to its 16-bit roots, and it was a pretty big success. However, SEGA and Sonic Team seem determined to make a more modern, HD polygonal interpretation of 2D Sonic work, one that turns “Classic Sonic” into its own branch of the franchise. I recently got the chance to check out Sonic Superstars at the Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles. Does the game hold up to the classics, or do we have another Sonic 4 on our hands? The game’s story starts depending on which character you’re playing. Sonic and Tails story starts on the tornado in chasing Fang, who has captured a very large flicky, presumably for Dr. Eggman. Meanwhile, Amy is petting some of the small animal friends when she sees Sonic’s plane in pursuit of Fang and she decides to chase after her hero. Knuckles is chilling next to the Master Emerald when he also spots the Tornado. All four are on the chase to stop Fang and Eggman and free these new, super-large animal buddies. I started my half-hour demo with Amy Rose since she’s never been a playable character in these classic adventures (until Sonic Origins Plus launches at least). Her special ability is a double jump. If the jump button is held down when she lands, it can be followed up by her running forward and smashing her hammer, destroying any badniks or breakable objects in her path. The other characters all have the same abilities from past games. Sonic can drop-dash, Knuckles glides and climbs (and can really help you skip past large areas), and Tails flies. There’s a surprising amount of new badniks, along with the returning assortment of crabmeats and the like. The buzzbombers now fire full laser streams instead of short laser bursts. The new badniks can have some clever new methods of attack, too! There’s a dragonfly one that disguises itself as a monitor before attacking. Then there are golden badniks you can find hidden in each zone, which can reward you with a gold medal when destroyed. What these medals do is unknown to me so far, but there were several to collect in my playthrough. While we’re talking about hidden items, let’s talk about bonus stages! I experienced three different types during my playthrough. The first one is unlocked by finding a giant ring similar to Sonic 3. This leads to an open space environment where you swing across on a grapple laser as you try to hunt down either an emerald or a medal. You only go after medals if you have already got the emerald in that zone. It’s basically like a homing attack meets Spider-Man web-swinging. The only challenge to it is that you can sometimes swing away from your target. There are also little boosts in the level that can shoot you quickly towards or away from the emerald depending on where it’s aiming. I went through three of these and they were fairly easy each time. The second one was a surprise as I didn’t see it when other press were playing the demo. It seems if you go fast enough you can cause a warp to appear that you can jump into. This leads to a short level of you bouncing forward and collecting rings until it ends and it seems that you’re now on a different part of the zone. I think. My memory is a little hazy on that part. Finally, the third (and my favorite) stage is found when passing by goalposts with enough rings, which opens up a portal you can jump into, just like in the classic games. This time you are in a floating and constantly spinning maze very similar to the ones from Sonic 1. Only now, your mission is to collect the gold medals instead of a chaos emerald. This is not very easy as there are a lot of red spikes you can accidentally hit that will end your level. Fortunately, there are triggers you can hit that will either block the red triangles or change the maze to help keep your path going. They can be tricky to get to, but necessary to finish the level. I quickly died on my first attempt but managed to pass it the second time. I then found a second maze level even tougher and cheered as I scraped by with the final path full of red spikes. It was very thrilling! Now, I’ve talked about the bonus stages, but what about the main ones? The demo featured two zones with two acts each: Bridge Island and Speed Jungle. Bridge Island starts out like a recolored Green Hill but soon differentiates itself with large, open pathways, providing plenty of room to explore the environment. There are some boost pads and launchers, but not so many that it forces you onto a single path. Rather, you can choose which booster to take you towards which path you want. They range from curved boosts in the sky to maze-like tunnels reminiscent of the ones from Stardust Speedway. One of the new things you can do is run along curved walls. It’s a little different from Sonic 2 in that you can hold up to run up the path higher and you don’t need to be running full speed. You can also climb up waterfalls using the new water power. This leads to new areas you couldn’t get to without it. I’ll go into more detail on these new “emerald powers” later. The first act ends with a giant sea monster badnik chasing after you in a fashion very similar to the killer whale in Sonic Generations 3DS. Just surviving causes the badnik to smash itself and free the massive animal buddy inside. The second boss is an encounter with a big Eggman mech, which tries to smash you with boxing gloves. You can either run between its legs and attack from behind or wait for its attack to aim and fire, then dodge and do a jump attack. Targeted attacks by the bosses were a definite theme in this demo. One thing I really like is that when standing still in boss fights, Sonic and friends’ stance changes from still and impatient, to fists drawn and ready to fight. It’s a very nice touch. While Bridge Island feels a little familiar, Speed Jungle feels more modern. From Tarzan-like sliding among moss-covered branches to being launched in the air by jungle vines, the zone has a unique feel to it. I will say, there are times when it felt more automated than the previous zone. Like being launched from a giant vine into a sliding branch only to be bounced around by other, short vines. Definitely not as automated as some Sonic games, but it gave me some Sonic Rush vibes. There are still branching paths, but once a path is chosen, it’s hard to go back and try a new one. The mini-boss for this zone is a giant wasp-like badnik powered by a giant blue flicky bird. It’s got two methods of attack: a grappling hook that it aims and fires at you, and a bunch of laser balls that will drop down from the top of the screen. Your main method of attacking it is dodging its grappling hook, then running up the rope to hit it. He was a really tricky customer, except in one instance that I’ll describe later. The second boss was Eggman inside a spinning, black egg robot. He targets the player with chain hooks that you can use as platforms until it accidentally damages him. He then changes his position and targets you with slow missiles, including a blue one you can hit back at him. As with all Eggman death machines, this one comes with some pretty serious design flaws! Sonic Superstars also introduces a brand new set of abilities to classic Sonic, Emerald powers. These powers can get you to new places in each zone or offer powerful attacks against enemies. They are selectable by either using the right thumbstick or L and R triggers to choose, followed by using the square button (or the left-facing front button depending on which controller you use). These powers include a water ability that lets you climb waterfalls to get to new heights (mostly useful on Bridge Island) and an ability called “avatar,” which lets you attack enemies and unblock paths with a large army of doppelgangers. I beat the dragonfly badnik way too easily by using this power. The parade of Sonics hit him multiple times and he went down easy. While the demo gave you both powers from the start, I imagine the final game will probably space these powers out to keep the game challenging. Also, these powers will probably let you find new experiences in older levels. While the game is 4-player simultaneous, my experience was single-player only. That said, it doesn’t change that classic Sonic feel and the camera stays focused in the middle and right on the player. Going by other videos I’ve seen, it looks like the camera pans out further depending on how many more players there are. It never feels like they made compromises for the game to be multiplayer. The only thing I found that’s multiplayer-specific is a set of four boxes in the air you come across. You can jump and hang off one of them for extra rings. It honestly feels out of place. Come to think of it, the odd warp zone just had me collecting rings as well. Maybe it’s used for a competitive nature against other players. Outside of that, you’d never know this is a multiplayer game. My only real nitpick is the music. Maybe it was the quietness of the headphones I was using, but the music was just…meh. It fits the environment well but was also uneventful. For instance, Speed Jungle had very jungle-like music, but nothing I haven’t heard in other platformers. Not near as bad as Sonic 4, but nothing I’d play on my Spotify. Finally, I imagine many of you are wondering if the game has that classic Sonic feel that the 16-bit classics were known for. Worry not. It’s all here. Momentum. Gravity. Speed. Physics. It’s all as you remember it. No walking up slopes. None of that artificial running feel. In fact, one time I got Amy running so fast she was almost completely off the screen like Sonic would sometimes achieve back in the day. Sonic Superstars feels like a new chapter in the classic Sonic franchise. Despite having 3D graphics, it seems like it will stand among the other 2D greats such as Sonic 2, 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic Mania. While the soundtrack might not stand up with the greats, the classic gameplay is there with all-new features. Look out New Super Mario Bros. Sonic Superstars is here to steal your thunder! View full story

The end of 2022 is now upon us. And boy, what a year it has been! After spending Sonic's 30th Anniversary mostly waiting for trailers, watching online events and experiencing strange mobile crossovers, it finally feels like this year has been the big global celebration of the blue blur that the decades-long franchise fully deserved. Usually, this is around this time of year where the Sonic Stadium does its annual tradition of summing up the past 12 months and succinctly contextualises the overall landscape of the Sonic franchise and fanbase. And while the last five years have largely been a snoozefest (Sonic Movie aside), this year our job has suddenly been made incredibly difficult! It really feels like we've had five years' worth of action happen on our doorstep in 2022 alone! The Big Story We're going to run through some key stories that ran throughout the year later in this feature - but, as always, there is a broader story behind everything that has happened in 2022. The key story here for SEGA, Sonic Team and the Sonic franchise in 2022 is one of 'convergence' and 'restructure'. If you were the ever-passionate Sonic Frontiers director, Morio Kishimoto, you might even use the word 'resurrection' or something. For this has been a year where the culmination of Sonic Team's five-year crunch on the latest mainline Sonic the Hedgehog game marks not only a new path forward for the game series, but a renewed effort (through Takashi Iizuka and the Sonic Brand team, based in the US) on creating synergy between the games and the other media pillars of SEGA's mascot franchise. With the onboarding of IDW Sonic comic writer Ian Flynn to help shape Sonic Frontiers' story, a slight re-telling of the plotlines that run through the classic 1990s Sonic games (which are then emphasised in cross-media projects such as Sonic Prime) and recent moves to establish and maintain a consistent "lore" to the Sonic franchise, it's clear that 2022 saw the fruits of SEGA's labour in performing some years-long canonical housekeeping. Our exclusive interview with Sonic franchise creative head Takashi Iizuka this year confirmed the intention to keep the different threads of Sonic media 'connected' as much as possible. It's likely that the most exciting results of this work will not be seen for another year or so yet, as new movies, TV shows, comics and games emerge and take advantage of this connected series of universes. But for now, fans have been blessed with an avalanche of media to consume - starting with Paramount's barnstorming sequel to the Sonic movie, and ending with Sonic Team's inspiring return to form and an engaging animation series on Netflix. The Sonic movies may well be considered part of their own canonical bubble. But when you take into account the rest of it - the timing of Sonic Origins' re-introduction of classic games; the gameplay and design approach in Sonic Frontiers; the consistent and authentic interpretation of Sonic's world and adventures in the IDW comics; the fresh multi-verse narrative that Sonic Prime offers; and the canonical backbone that has been established to connect them all - it really does feel like the start of a brand new generation of Sonic the Hedgehog, in its entirety. And that's an incredibly exciting thought, going into 2023. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Movie Right at the start of the year, fans were clamouring for the imminent release of one of the most highly-anticipated Sonic media in years. And surprisingly, it wasn't a video game! Paramount Pictures' successful handling of the original Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 got families and fans excited for more, and with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 arriving in theatres in late March/early April, there was a lot of opportunity to generate even more hype than before. Especially thanks to the formal arrival of Tails and Knuckles into the movie-verse. Not that it needed much else to push hype levels up. But in case any more convincing was needed, a whole bunch of merchandise and tie-ins were announced alongside consistent releases of new renders and trailers. There were McDonalds toys, Build-A-Bear collaborations, a prequel (sorry, "pre-quill") comic that had input from Jim Carrey... there was even a promotion with Xbox where you could win a ghastly 'furry' pair of Sonic controllers. The extra effort paid off. The movie was released (except in Russia) to mostly positive reviews from critics (including Sonic Stadium itself) and, as one of the first movies to open to a world of theaters finally escaping the lockdown grip of COVID-19, absolutely smashed the box office with over $25.5 million raked in from worldwide markets in its opening few days before it even premiered in the US! We made a pretty good name for ourselves this year by shoehorning Sonic game titles into the headlines of every Sonic 2 movie box office earnings story we could manage (seriously, we did this a lot of times). Be proud of us. It's hard work. But, it was worth keeping up with the movie's every milestone, as it beat every cinematic rival it faced down, from Fantastic Beasts to Uncharted. By August, the movie had pulled a global gross of nearly $401 million, making it the fourth-highest grossing video game movie of all time. The sheer colossal scale of Sonic 2's success encouraged Paramount to double down on its cinematic partnership with SEGA, quickly announcing the existence of a third Sonic movie (later revealed to release on December 20, 2024) as well as a spinoff TV series focusing on Knuckles the Echidna, portrayed on the big screen by Idris Elba. It's all part of what was announced to be a planned 'cinematic universe' for the Paramount Sonic series. But with the success came a little bit of sad news - that of Jim Carrey's supposed intended retirement from acting. It appears that Robotnik will be one of the last characters in which the comedy legend will perform. Carrey did just blurt out the intention to retire randomly during the press junket for Sonic 2, so it could be something he's casually thinking about. But questions remain as to whether he will retire from performing as Robotnik at all for the third movie and beyond. Bonus: The original, horrifying, Sonic movie design also saw a return this year - featuring as a cameo in the latest Chip 'n Dale live action movie on Disney+. We thought we would never have to deal with this monster ever again, but at least we can live soundly in the knowledge that someone found beauty in his ghastly visage. In another insane twist, hilarious comedy icon Tim Robinson (of "I Think You Should Leave" fame) voices the 'Ugly Sonic' character in the movie. Sonic Origins Sonic's classic 1990s adventures were re-introduced to a whole new generation of gamers this year, with the release of Sonic Origins in June. After originally being announced during SEGA's official Sonic Central livestream in 2021, details had been extremely thin on the ground since then. Finally, the silence was broken in April, with a South Korean ratings board filing revealing the compilation's imminent release. Marketed as a collection of the popular Sonic the Hedgehog 16-Bit remasters that had previously released exclusively on mobile devices, Origins marked the first time these Taxman-developed games were playable on home consoles. But there was also the added bonus of special modes for each game, new areas and newly-developed missions to complete. The compilation would also include some new animated sequences to bookend the events of each game, penned by Ian Flynn (who would eventually become a kind of connecting thread canonically across all of the mainline Sonic media projects). Most significantly, Origins was the first time SEGA had re-released the fan-favourite Mega Drive masterpiece, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, in at least a decade. This new version of the 16-bit adventure was being handled exclusively by Sonic Mania co-developer Headcannon, while the rest of the Origins package was being produced by in-house SEGA teams. Unfortunately, because of the music rights issues surrounding Sonic 3 (which is suspected to involve contributing composer and longtime Michael Jackson collaborator Brad Buxer, who coincidentally started talking about his work on Sonic 3 weeks before Sonic Origins' release), something had to give in the Headcannon remaster found in Origins. The BGM for the game's latter stages were replaced with newly mastered renditions from series sound director Jun Senoue. Anyone looking to find another version of the classic games to play were soon to be out of luck as SEGA delisted past releases of the 16-Bit Sonic titles (including Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles' Xbox Live Arcade releases on Xbox 360, which still had the original music intact). Luckily, while the change in S3K's soundtrack was a little jarring at first, it didn't dampen our feelings for the overall package, and we reviewed Sonic Origins positively (as did other gaming critics across the globe). The release wasn't without its hiccups - although a bugfix patch was released, some fans couldn't get over some of the production niggles, leading Headcannon to speak out against SEGA and accuse the company of making unsolicited modifications of its work on Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Bit of a strange and sour end to a really decent product, to be honest. Bonus: Sonic Origins (and Sonic Colours Ultimate before it) may not be the last time SEGA explores the Sonic back catalogue - in May 2022, the company told investors that it would focus on "multiple remasters and remakes for the year ahead", amidst strong Sonic series game sales. Sonic Frontiers While the Sonic franchise definitely benefited from a successful run of movies, comics, Netflix shows and other media, for SEGA and Sonic Team the priority was on the next mainline Sonic game that had been in development for five years solid. Sonic Frontiers marked a true departure from the 'Boost style' mechanics of the last 15 years of games, with an emphasis on exploration, parkour and close-quarters combat - signalling a "new generation" of Sonic gameplay. So distinctive was this revised direction for the Sonic games, that Takashi Iizuka went on record several times to comment on how Frontiers represented a bold new era for the Japanese studio (to the point where he even suggested he'd take learnings from Frontiers towards a Sonic Adventure sequel - but then Iizuka-san has talked about a Sonic Adventure sequel for about ten years now). Frontiers saw a change in guard at Sonic Team as well - with the new 'face' of the developer taking centre stage throughout 2022. Morio Kishimoto has been an unsung hero of the year for Sonic fans, showing his clear dedication to the franchise in every media interview. Even post-release, his open discussions with fans on Twitter and earnest desires to improve and take on feedback is winning hearts, and we can really see him becoming a great spokesperson for the Sonic game series going forward. His dream is to restore the fans' faith in Sonic Team once again. And, well, we really have to admire him for that. Ultimately, we were impressed with our play time with Sonic Frontiers at Gamescom, and our review concluded that the game shows a lot of promise for what future mainline Sonic games lie ahead. But the game really struck a chord with the Sonic fanbase. Which is easy to see, when you have a main theme by J-Rock band One Ok Rock, a tie-in prologue comic and animation, a vinyl release of Tomoya Ohtani's incredible soundtrack, Sonic Adventure 2 throwbacks and Monster Hunter collaborations. SEGA went hard on promoting Sonic Frontiers indeed - beyond the obligatory impressive Japanese special edition, the company gave the game a huge presence at Japan's high profile Tokyo Game Show this year (which is unprecedented, given Sonic's relatively low popularity in the country) and even sold a one-off branded car, reminiscent of marketing stunts for the blue blur's Dreamcast adventures. After years of being in the doldrums with rather pitiful game sales, Sonic Frontiers' release smashed all expectations, with the game selling over 2.5 million units by December, making it one of the fastest-selling Sonic games of all time. In Japan, its week-one sales quickly made it the fastest-selling mainline Sonic title in twenty years. It's no surprise that SEGA and Sonic Team are supporting the game up with a full slate of post-release content throughout 2023, including a whole new story chapter. A real success story for SEGA and Sonic Team, and a great template for the next generation of Sonic games! Sonic Prime The final big pillar in Sonic's amazing 2022 came along right at the end of the year, courtesy of Netflix. Much like all the other projects we've discussed here, Sonic Prime was announced early 2021 and spent the entire rest of last year going dark on us. It wasn't until mid-2022 where we'd finally get some footage of the show thanks to a sizzle reel. Even after that, details were revealed to us in a drip-fed fashion. Shadow was confirmed to be in the show a month after the initial sizzle, as was Big the Cat. But besides a snapshot of their presence in Green Hill Zone, we got absolutely no further details on what roles they would have. We finally got some idea of when Netflix would release the show to subscribers thanks to a Japanese interview with a SEGA producer that let slip the TV series would air in December. From there, it was a quick trip to trailer town and a confirmed release date, and the series did indeed air its first eight episodes in early December 2022. But not before airing the first episode on Roblox, because why not? Sonic Prime opened its run and we found it to be a fun cartoon romp that offers some interesting twists on a number of Sonic characters that we grew up to know and love. We reviewed the first episode here, but it's clear that many millions of people binged all eight episodes right away, as the show quickly reached the Top 5 in Netflix's Most Watched within the opening week. What Were Your Favourite Moments of 2022? There have been so many notable moments in 2022 beyond the four main pillars above. From IDW's 50th Sonic Issue, to Minecraft, Fall Guys, Candy Crush and Kart Rider collaboration content, a surprise Sonic 2006 release on Xbox 360, Yuji Naka's arrest for insider trading, a second Mega Drive Mini console to awesome First4Figures statue announcements. Let us know your favourite moment/s from the last year in the comments below! View full story

By @Jason the Jackass Sonic Rush has always been my favorite portable (non-Switch) Sonic game, so to hear there was a demo of it done in full 3D interested me greatly. After playing the demo, I will say it resembles Sonic Unleashed as much as it does Sonic Rush. It’s also a fun ride that needs a bit of work. Project directors ChickenWingJohnny, EnderElectrics, and Temzy have done an impressive job taking Sonic Rush’s low-poly 3D graphics into a fully 3-D environment. It includes the same boost and trick system as the DS original, but with a modern touch taken from Sonic Unleashed levels like Windmill Isle and Jungle Joyride. The level environment in the game is a mix of those two levels and Water Palace from Sonic Rush. This felt appropriate, as the background of Water Palace has always reminded me of Apotos/Windmill Isle. In fact, in the opening cutscene, it’s Apotos that Sonic tells Tails he’s dropping into as in this version, Water Palace and Apotos are connected! This cutscene also perfectly encapsulate what I love about this game’s visual style: it replicates the low poly models and low res textures of the DS original. I love it when newer games combine retro 3D visuals with modern HD resolutions. It helps give it a sharpness while still having a dated look. As you jump into the level, a nice mix of “Back to Back” by Hideki Naganuma and “Windmill Isle Act 1” by Tomoya Ohtani plays as you run down, hit your first bumper, and attack some badniks in mid-air. This moment is where the first problem lies: Sonic Rush 3D has very poor homing attack implementation. When attacking badniks or pawn bots, Sonic’s targeting reticle has to be on-screen. If he hits an enemy and pops up into the air, the robot in front will often be just out of view, and when you tap “A” again, Sonic will pass right over the enemy if the timing is just slightly off. It’s partially due to Sonic’s wonky physics in this game. At times, he controls well, at other times, you can boost off a ramp and fly through the air, missing where you’re supposed to land. You can also easily run onto walls and pathways you’re not meant to go to. This could lead to some shortcuts for speedruns, but also lead to drops and deaths that are entirely not your fault. The same cannot be said for Sonic’s drifting controls, which are perfect. When playing Unleashed or Generations, I always felt Sonic’s drifting had him sliding too far. In this game, you have perfect control of the blue blur when drifting into corners. I was impressed with how well it worked. The boost works decently as well, resembling its visuals from the DS game. However, moments where the boost is actually needed are few and far in between. You can go through most of the game at a fairly decent clip without boosting at all. There are a few exceptions, like a rush of water you have to outrun and a lower path near the end where you need to slide under then boost again to avoid drowning. There’s also a hallway of pawn bots you can plow through with it. If you want to add some flash to your playthrough, you can press the "Y" button repeatedly after being launched off a ramp or spring. This lets you do the same trick manoeuvres as the DS original, and even ends the same way, with a flicky flourish animation. That’s a nice visual touch! While it's definitely rough around the edges in its current state, Sonic Rush 3D is pretty fun. I can’t wait to see Sonic Rush 3D come back next year with more updates, along with some fixes to its physics. It feels like an Unleased de-make as much as a Sonic Rush remake. I think “Sonic Rush Unleashed” might be a better name for this project. Now, they just need to add Blaze the Cat into the mix. You can find the SAGE demo of Sonic Rush 3D on the official SAGE 2021 website. -------------------------- Full Story: https://www.sonicstadium.org/2021/08/sage-2021-hands-on-with-sonic-rush-3d/

http://sonicstadium.org/articles/the-spin-why-abhor-sonic-4 Call it a counter-opinion piece, if you like. We like to cover all points in the Sonic world, and clearly Sonic 4 has been one of the most controversial game reveals in years (at least for Sonic). As much as Brad outlined potential negatives with using the Sonic 4 name, so too do I bring forth the argument that there's really nothing to worry about until we see some more concrete gameplay footage and evidence to the fears some fans have. If you think there's something going on between me and Brad, by the way, don't. We're chill dogs. So, er, debate/opinions. Go.

The Sonic Show Presents: The Top 5 Biggest Assholes We counted down the top 5 winter levels for Christmas, but now... we're looking at the most frustrating levels, badniks, and objects that can be deemed "the biggest asshole ever." Who will win? Visit The Sonic Show here in the TSS Network. Watch it. What are your top 5 biggest assholes? I know that there are plenty more.

http://sonicstadium.org/article/interview/...ce-of-dr-eggman Mike's a cool dude.

A Sonic Stadium Exclusive! SEGA has been a motivator in the games industry ever since the master system came out all those years ago. SEGA has always done what not other game company has. Since their recent decision to go multi-platform, news about them has been scarce and many fans have been disappointed. The purpose for this unofficial magazine is to help aid those lost SEGA lovers with a something new that can represent SEGA by the fans. This is SEGA Magazine: 100% Unofficial. 100% Free. Issue 3: March 2002 Another Special themed Sega Magazine, looking at all the way past cool 'Sega Sports' brand video games. Includes 'Sports Talk' with Andrew from Sonic News, and every third party sports title compared with Sega's own. Next Issue Preview A Sonic Stadium exclusive, brought to you by SonicVerse Team. View full story

A Sonic Stadium Exclusive! SEGA has been a motivator in the games industry ever since the master system came out all those years ago. SEGA has always done what not other game company has. Since their recent decision to go multi-platform, news about them has been scarce and many fans have been disappointed. The purpose for this unofficial magazine is to help aid those lost SEGA lovers with a something new that can represent SEGA by the fans. This is SEGA Magazine: 100% Unofficial. 100% Free. Issue 2: February 2002 Sega Magazine goes all Role-Play this issue, as SVT review all the best Dreamcast RPG’s you can find. Includes Skies of Arcadia, Grandia II, PSO, Time Stalkers and ‘Shenmue: RPG or not?’ A Sonic Stadium exclusive, brought to you by SonicVerse Team. View full story

A Sonic Stadium Exclusive! SEGA has been a motivator in the games industry ever since the master system came out all those years ago. SEGA has always done what not other game company has. Since their recent decision to go multi-platform, news about them has been scarce and many fans have been disappointed. The purpose for this unofficial magazine is to help aid those lost SEGA lovers with a something new that can represent SEGA by the fans. This is SEGA Magazine: 100% Unofficial. 100% Free. Issue 1: January 2002 Previews: Sonic Adventure 2 Battle Sonic Advance Space Channel 5 [PS2] Features: Top 10 Dreamcast Games A Sonic Stadium exclusive, brought to you by SonicVerse Team. View full story